Disappointment all round with no reformist signs that second Abdullah
Cabinet had heard the message of the people in the March 8 general
election, that “Point made and point taken”

The second Abdullah Cabinet is a disappointment all round with no
signs from its first meeting yesterday that it will be reformist and get
cracking to make up for the past four years of broken pledges of reform.

Even the promise of judicial reform which was the rationale for the
surprise appointment of Datuk Zaid Ibrahim as the de facto Law Minister
to undertake judicial and legal reforms to restore national and
international confidence in the independence, integrity and quality of
the judiciary after two decades of ravages of the cardinal principles of
a truly independent judiciary and just rule of law has come out against
a stonewall.

Zaid’s proposal that the government should apologise to the victims of
the 1988 judicial crisis, which many have regarded as grossly inadequate
to address the series of judicial crisis of confidence in the past two
decades, could not find support in the Cabinet yesterday, with Zaid
making the revealing comment after saying that he had presented his view
that the government should apologise to Tun Salleh Abas, Datuk George
Seah and the late Tan Sri Wan Suleiman Pawanteh:

“Well, I am afraid the view has yet to be considered.

“There are many people who are more experienced and who are wiser than
me. So we have to wait.”

What Zaid meant is clear and simple - he has not received any support
in the Cabinet to take the first step for meaningful judicial reforms,
to rectify the wrongs and injustices which had caused the plunge of
Malaysia’s judicial system from internationally-acknowledged as
world-class two decades ago to its parlous state today.

It is also disappointing that the first meeting of the second Abdullah
Cabinet yesterday gave no signs that it has heard the people’s voice in
the March 8 general election and is seized of the urgency to make up for
four years’ of failure to deliver the reform pledges made by Abdullah
when he became Prime Minister, particularly:

3. All-out drive to eradicate corruption with the elevation of the
Anti-Corruption Agency as an autonomous agency answerable only to
Parliament.

4. Full implementation of the 125 recommendations of the Royal Police
Commission to create an efficient, incorruptible, professional
world-class police service to reduce crime, eradicate corruption and
uphold human rights, particularly the establishment of an Independent
Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC).

5. All-party inquiry to enhance Malaysia’s international competitiveness
including having a world-class education system to enable the country to
successfully face the challenges of globalization.

All in all, it is a bad start for the second Abdullah Cabinet despite
the claim of the Prime Minister that he has heard the “message” of the
people in the March 8 political tsunami - which “Point made and point
taken”. Clearly, the point made by Malaysian voters in the March 8
general election has still to be “taken” by the Prime Minister and his
Cabinet.